On morning of scheduled federal trial, Hunter Biden attempts to enter an Alford plea

As reported here in the Washington Post, “President Joe Biden’s son Hunter tried to resolve his federal tax case Thursday as jury selection was about to begin, offering an Alford plea in which he maintains he is innocent but acknowledges that the prosecution’s evidence would likely result in a guilty verdict.” Here is more:

Prosecutors objected to the proposal, which they had not been told of in advance.  U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi is expected to decide this afternoon whether to adjourn the proceedings until Friday or give the two sides more time to come to agreement.

“I want to make crystal clear: the U.S. opposes an Alford plea … Hunter Biden is not innocent, he is guilty,” Leo Wise, an attorney working for special counsel David Weiss, told the judge. “We came to court to try this case.”

Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, noted that Alford pleas are an option available to all criminal defendants — even though such plea agreements are relatively rare. “All over the U.S. people do this,” Lowell said.  “It’s not that [Hunter Biden] seeks special treatment, but that he gets the same rights as everyone who is charged.”

Weiss charged Biden last year on nine tax-related counts, accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes from 2016 through 2019.  Three charges were felonies and six were misdemeanors.  They include failing to file and pay taxes, tax evasion and filing false tax returns. Weiss separately charged Biden last year with three felony gun counts in Delaware.  A jury convicted Biden on all three charges in June, and he is scheduled for sentencing in November.

The indictments came after a lengthy investigation into Biden’s business dealings while his father was vice president, which Republican lawmakers and former president Donald Trump have tried to use as evidence of corruption within the Biden family. No evidence has surfaced publicly to suggest any wrongdoing by Joe Biden.

The younger Biden has said he has undergone treatment for addiction and is no longer using drugs. While his addiction to crack cocaine was a central theme of his gun trial, the Los Angeles case is expected to delve into Biden’s lavish spending and sex life during that period — much of which he chronicled in his 2021 memoir. Among the accusations laid out in the nine-count indictment is that Biden wrote off money he paid sex workers as business expenses on his tax forms.

An Alford plea, named after a case North Carolina v. Alford, is a way for a defendant to register a formal admission of guilt toward charges they are facing while simultaneously maintaining their innocence. United States attorneys are only able to consent to Alford pleas “in the most unusual of circumstances” and consult with top officials at the Department of Justice before doing so, according to federal prosecution guidelines….

The president, who has made clear he thinks the criminal charges against his son are politically motivated, has said emphatically that he does not plan to pardon Hunter Biden’s criminal convictions. Some of Hunter Biden’s allies hope he will change his mind, however, and issue a pardon after the November election.

Just as Hunter Biden was beginning the day in court, the president was leaving the White House to travel to La Crosse, Wis., for an event touting his administration’s economic policies. From Air Force One, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated that the president would not pardon or commute Hunter Biden’s sentence. “No,” she told reporters on Air Force One. “It is still very much a no.”

UPDATE: This Politico article reports that Hunter Biden’s guilty plea was entered this afternoon, though it appears it was just a standard open plea to the charges rather than an Alford plea:

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty Thursday to tax evasion and other tax crimes in an 11th-hour about-face that surprised prosecutors as a trial was about to begin….

The only remaining question now is how much prison time, if any, Biden will face. Shortly after Biden entered his guilty plea, U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi scheduled his sentencing on the tax charges for Dec. 16. Biden is scheduled to be sentenced in the gun case in November.

Biden faces up to 17 years in prison for the tax charges, though experts say lighter sentences in similar cases are more common. Scarsi will consider Biden’s admission of guilt when he sentences him….

The plea was not part of a plea deal, meaning prosecutors did not promise to recommend a reduced prison sentence….  After Scarsi questioned the Alford arrangement and signaled he might seek further legal arguments on whether he should accept it, Biden conferred with his lawyers and entered a straightforward guilty plea.

<P>As Scarsi questioned Biden about the plea in open court, the judge stressed that he still had the authority to hand down a hefty sentence.  “With regard to sentencing, there’s no guarantees. You understand that?” Scarsi, an appointee of Donald Trump, asked….

Biden is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13 in the gun case, where federal sentencing guidelines recommend up to 21 months in prison, though Biden could receive much less or even no prison time at all.  In the tax case, prosecutors alleged that Biden earned more than $7 million during the years in question and later plotted to fraudulently lower the taxes he owed on that income by falsely labeling trips and other luxury purchases as business expenses. They said he used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle filled with drugs, strippers and sports cars.